Report: Peterborough United 2 Under-18s 1

18 August 2014

mkdons.com

MK Dons Under-18s were made to pay for a poor first-half display as they lost 2-1 to Peterborough United last weekend.

Mike Dove’s side fell behind to two soft Posh goals inside the opening 20 minutes. Kabongo Tshimanga did pull one back after the interval but despite that and a much-improved second half performance, they weren’t able to turn things around.

The young Dons side conceded after just seven minutes when they were caught out of shape in defence and United striker Jonny Edwards found the goal with a deflected strike.

The visitor’s only real chance of note in the first half came in the 39th minute when Tshimanga managed to drive a ball across goal, however none of his Dons teammates could latch onto it inside the area.

After a frank half-time team talk from Dove and his assistant David Oldfield, the Dons started the second half in a much brighter fashion and they bombarded the Peterborough goal with seven shots in just 15 minutes.

Connor Furlong, Laurence Vaughan and Tshimanga all saw efforts either saved or fall wide of the target before the latter finally found a breakthrough with a composed finish following some neat build-up play from the Dons.

However, despite their dominant second-half display, Dove’s side weren’t able to find an equaliser and, as a result, left Cambridgeshire empty handed.

Speaking after the game, Dove said: “The first half performance was very disappointing and not acceptable. We were second to balls, we were overrun at times and we just looked off the place.

“We had a stern discussion at the break and, to the boys’ credit, they responded well in the second half and we probably should have got more out of the game.”